Jordan Jacobs sat at his desk, relieved that he had finally completed the evaluation of HRM in his company Scranton, Inc., but concerned about his next moves. He had conducted an analytic approach review and discovered several issues with HRM that suggested there was room for improvement. First, he found that more money than necessary was being used on transactional tasks in the HR department, such as payroll and benefits administration. This was extremely frustrating to him, as he and his staff had already spent considerable time and expense in restructuring the staff and finding what they thought was the optimal approach. The evaluation also indicated that the current hierarchical organization of HR, which included the basic subfunctions of HR led by a director who reported to the Chief Human Resource Officer (CHRO), was not operating effectively. Under this organization, HR employees either focused too much on a particular functional skill (e.g., recruiting, compensation, training) or too much on a particular business unit (e.g., marketing, accounting, information technology). Lastly, the evaluation revealed that the performance management system currently in place was of very poor quality. The performance evaluations were inconsistent across the company and rarely provided feedback that was of use to the employees.

1. Based on the information presented in the case, what should Mr. Jacobs do with the transactional tasks such as payroll and benefits administration?

A. Hire additional staff to take on these activities

B. Outsource them since it no longer seems cost-effective to keep in-house

C. Reengineer the transactional process to make it more effective

D. Create a service center that focuses on delivering basic services

E. Outsource them since other companies are better at these tasks

2. How should Mr.Jacobs develop the HRM function at Scranton, Inc. using the generic structure?

A. Develop a center for expertise

B. Create a field staff of HR generalists

C. Restructure HR to include centers for expertise, field staff, and a service center

D. Outsource all HR practices to another organization

E. Reengineer all HR processes completely

3. Which HRM practice that needs reengineering had Mr. Jacobs already spent considerable time and expense to restructure?

A. Payroll and benefits

B. Training and development

C. Performance management

D. Communication with organization directors

4. At which stage in the reengineering process would Mr. Jacobs try out the process by testing it in a limited, control setting?

A. Identifying the process to reengineered

B. Understanding the process

C. Redesigning the process

D. Implementing the new process

5. Which technique to understanding a process involves real-world issues presented to data end users?

A. Data-flow diagrams

B. Cost-benefit analyses

C. Scenario analyses

D. Focus groups

E. Surveys